Dave Cortese

Senator Dave Cortese (D-San Jose) represents California's 15th Senate District, encompassing much of Santa Clara County in the heart of Silicon Valley ^[1,2]. A product of Jesuit education at Bellarmine College Preparatory and nearly three decades of public service spanning school boards, city council, and county government, Cortese brings a deeply rooted family legacy of civic engagement and Italian-American immigrant values to the State Senate ^[1,3]. While CFC diverges from Senator Cortese on many policy positions, his consistent advocacy for protecting children from fentanyl, strengthening family placement for foster youth, and his personal commitment to family life offer meaningful ^[4,5]. With a 15% CFC Biblical Values Scorecard rating, Cortese's voting record has consistently placed him at considerable distance from the California Family Council's worldview framework on the sanctity of life (Chapter 6), parental authority in education (Chapter 8), and religious liberty (Chapter 9).

David Dominic Cortese was born on June 3, 1956, in San Jose, California, into a family with deep roots in the Santa Clara Valley. His paternal grandfather, Vince Cortese Sr., immigrated from the Sicilian town of Trabia around 1917 and built a life through farming and commercial development in the Valley. His maternal grandfather, Ed Donovan, served as a Santa Clara City Councilman in 1949-1950 and was an executive at General Motors Credit Corp. Dave's father, Dominic L.

Cortese attended Bellarmine College Preparatory, a Jesuit all-boys school in San Jose founded in 1851 -- the oldest Jesuit secondary school in California -- where students are formed in the Ignatian tradition of developing the whole person and becoming 'men for and with others' ^[6]. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from the University of California, Davis, and later obtained his Juris Doctorate from Lincoln University Law School in San Jose ^[1,2].

His 11.3% Biblical Values Scorecard rating across 102 scored floor votes reflects consistent divergence from CFC's worldview framework. His voting record has supported abortion access expansion over the sanctity of human life, government-directed education over parental authority and school choice, and progressive social mandates over religious liberty protections.

Senator Cortese's nearly three decades of public service, rooted in an immigrant family's journey from Sicilian farmland to Silicon Valley leadership, reflect an enduring commitment to community engagement. His co-chairing of the $950 million Measure A affordable housing bond and the All the Way Home campaign that housed 1,940 veterans demonstrate a capacity for large-scale civic achievement ^[1,3].